1 week Ago
Scorer of many an outrageous goal during his celebrated and at times controversial career, Zlatan Ibrahimovic ought to look back on November 14 incredibly fondly for as long as the Swedish icon lives. Indeed, it has now been exactly 12 years since the Scandinavian sensation left England speechless with an unbelievable bicycle kick in a 4-2 friendly victory, not thinking twice about launching the mot audacious of acrobatic efforts towards an open goal. Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart could only half-clear with a header from outside his area, leaving him in no man's land as Ibrahimovic set himself for an overhead spectacular, one which sailed gracefully through the air before approaching England's exposed net.
Ryan Shawcross did his utmost to clear Ibrahimovic's effort off the line, but it was a futile endeavour, and the recently-retired 43-year-old soon wheeled in away in celebration of the goal that would rightfully win him the 2013 Puskas Award. To celebrate Ibrahimovic's masterful bicycle kick, Sports Mole counts down the striker's top 10 goals of all time. Having already been crowned 2008-09 Serie A champions by the final weekend of the campaign, the shackles were off when Inter Milan hosted Atalanta BC at San Siro, where both fans and neutrals certainly got their money's worth.
By the 80-minute mark, six goals had already flown into the back of the net - three for each side, including one for the indomitable Ibrahimovic - while Sulley Muntari and Esteban Cambiasso also registered for Jose Mourinho 's Nerazzurri. Despite their unassailable lead at the summit, Inter were not content with a point, and with 81 minutes gone, Hernan Crespo 's cross into the box would seemingly be cut out by a defender, but Ibrahimovic wrestled his way through, held the ball up and directed a sumptuous backheel into the bottom corner for his 25th goal of the campaign - one which saw him take home the Capocannoniere. Still capable of pulling rabbits out of the hats during his United States sojourn, Ibrahimovic was initially thwarted by the New England Revolution defence when they visited the Los Angeles Galaxy in June 2019.
Cristian Penilla and Teal Bunbury had propelled the Revolution into a healthy 2-0 lead, but the comeback was on with 84 minutes on the clock, as the New England outfit failed to deal with a throw-in, and the ball found its way to Ibrahimovic, who took a couple of touches to set himself and found the back of the net with a stunning overhead kick. The Swede's 11th MLS goal of the campaign was not enough to turn the tide in the Galaxy's favour, but it was a truly special strike nonetheless. After propelling Inter into an early lead with his head during the visit of Fiorentina in 2009, Ibrahimovic had the chance to put the tie well and truly to bed when the Nerazzurri were awarded a free kick in the fourth minute of second-half injury time.
Holding a slender lead with seconds remaining, most teams would have likely played the set piece short and ambled to the corner flag, but there was only one thing on Ibrahimovic's mind when he lined up the free kick some 32 metres from goal. Letting fly with a vicious 109kmh effort, Ibrahimovic got the ball up and over the wall before it crashed into the roof of the net via the crossbar, putting Inter out of sight en route to another Scudetto. Meeting several of his soon-to-be Italian adversaries ahead of his switch from Ajax to Juventus, Ibrahimovic led the line for Sweden against the Azzurri in their Euro 2004 group-stage match alongside Henrik Larsson , in what promised to be a tantalising contest.
The Scandinavian outfit had thumped Bulgaria 5-0 in their opening group game but fell behind to a first-half Antonio Cassano effort at the Estadio do Dragao, before Ibrahimovic once again came in clutch with just five minutes of normal time left. As Italy failed to clear their lines following a corner, an almighty goalmouth scramble materialised, during which Ibrahimovic plucked the ball out of the air and displayed tremendous athleticism to flick a backheel volley into the net, rescuing a point for the Swedes and contributing to Italy's premature exit. Six days on from suffering their first defeat of the 2008-09 Serie A season to bitter foes AC Milan, Inter would vie to get back on track when Bologna made the journey to San Siro.
Unsurprisingly, Mourinho's men did exactly that with a 2-1 success on home soil, taking the lead in the first half through another one of Ibrahimovic's cheeky flicks. With 25 minutes played, Brazilian attacker Adriano beat his man for pace down the left wing and sent in a cross to the near post - where Ibrahimovic was waiting - and the Swede planted his left foot into the ground while delicately flicking the ball beyond the stagnant Bologna goalkeeper. No surprises were to be sprung when Bastia ventured to the Parc des Princes to tackle Paris Saint-Germain in 2013, and by the 10-minute mark, the visiting faithful probably wished that they had not made the journey.
However, those that did witnessed one of the most extraordinary goals to ever grace the Parisian turf, as PSG went from defence to attack in the blink of an eye, and Ibrahimovic was on hand to finish off a fine move with an even better finish. Lucas Moura 's cross from the right flank was touched on by Hervin Ongenda , who perhaps inadvertently set up Ibrahimovic to open the scoring with a sensational scorpion kick - his first of two goals on the day as PSG strolled to a 4-0 win. Seven goals, a phenomenal comeback and a 41-yard spectacular? Just a standard debut for the Swedish sensation, who was named on the bench for the Los Angeles Galaxy during the visit of adversaries Los Angeles FC, who had scored three without reply by the 48-minute mark.
In between a pair of responses from Sebastian Lletget and Chris Pontius , Ibrahimovic was brought on for the former with 20 minutes left, and the scriptwriters had a field day on his MLS inauguration. Only six minutes after being introduced, Ibrahimovic completed the Galaxy turnaround with an unbelievable long-range half-volley, before also popping up with an injury-time winner to break Los Angeles FC hearts. During a brief stopover in Belgium for a Champions League group-stage affair with Anderlecht in 2013, Ibrahimovic needed just 36 minutes to stamp his authority on the Constant Vanden Stock Stadion turf, where he had already propelled PSG into a two-goal lead by the half-hour mark.
Laurent Blanc 's team were far from satisfied with their 2-0 advantage, though, and nine minutes before the break, PSG came again down the left through Maxwell , whose cross was half-headed clear by an Anderlecht defender. However, Ibrahimovic had dropped deep to send Maxwell away down the left, and having also continued his leisurely stroll forwards, the towering striker was on hand to complete his hat-trick with an unstoppable half volley into the top corner from 35 yards. Several Anderlecht supporters could not help but applaud Ibrahimovic's brilliance, and the 41-year-old would add a fantastic fourth in the second half to round off a 5-0 PSG success.
In his penultimate game for Ajax before transferring to Juventus, Ibrahimovic gave the Amsterdam faithful one of the best gifts they could ever receive - an astonishing solo goal akin to the likes of Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane . The striker had actually made a rod for his own back with the fans after a heavy challenge on Ajax teammate Rafael van der Vaart during an international friendly earlier that same summer, and while Ibrahimovic has never needed a second invitation to do his talking off the pitch, this time was different. Having already scored once as Ajax reversed a 1-0 deficit against NAC Breda to lead 4-1, Ibrahimovic collected the ball with his back to goal 30 yards out, skipped past several fruitless challenges from opposing players and sold the goalkeeper a dummy before calmly slotting home to cap off an exceptional solo move.
It was only fitting for one of Ibrahimovic's best individual performances in a Sweden shirt to end with one of the best goals that international football will ever see - one which won the marksman the 2013 Puskas Award. England may have been visiting the Friends Arena, but Roy Hodgson 's men were not interested in making friends with Ibrahimovic, who had cancelled out efforts from Danny Welbeck and Steven Caulker with another hat-trick, including an 84th-minute free kick to seemingly seal the deal. However, as the game entered four minutes of injury time, Joe Hart was caught in two minds on how to deal with a long ball, and the former Manchester City man ultimately attempted to clear with his head.
Hart had only succeeded in teeing up Ibrahimovic, though, and with the England shot-stopper in no man's land, the Swedish sensation let fly with a breathtaking bicyle kick some 30 yards from goal, which Ryan Shawcross tried and failed to clear off the line, displaying outrageous technique to score his fourth and final goal on a wonderful Nordic night..
